In case you haven’t noticed, and I am sure you have, summer is half over. More depressing, there are several trees that are shedding some yellow, crisp leaves. Hey, Mr. Tree over there, it’s not even October yet! So don’t deflate our hot air balloons just yet, OK?
On a brighter note, congratulate my father on celebrating his 82nd birthday on July 24th. He’s still driving, eating, and most importantly — breathing. Still resides in the home he built for us in 1970. More worn — call it patina — it’s still a great place, and his palace. He loves being there with his prize Turkish Van cat, aka the “white dynamo.” Real name – Biddle.
I’m happy I can visit both of them at his own residence and not a nursing home. Note to senior centers and elderly homes — he won’t consider going to your joint unless you allow the cat to go with him. A “package deal.” The couch is still accommodating and comfy, as it should be after so many years of “breaking it in.” It’s a home worth calling home.
Speaking of couches and chairs, as a retired interior decorator, he placed plenty of them in other people’s homes. Sometimes I went to help move the furniture, and let me tell you, you didn’t want anything to slip out of your hands!
It was a tight squeeze in those older homes! Bruised knuckles and bumped behinds proved it!
With July almost behind us, August marks a bull’s-eye for me, as it’s time to accomplish everything for summer you didn’t get done by the end of June and a bit beyond. My shed needs a massive overhaul and cleanup. I cannot let this task slip my mind.
Ah yes, the shed. My version of your basement or attic. A “catch-all” where things tend to slip away. Forever. Sure, the mower, the rake and shovel, and tools go in there. And so does everything else I have no room for in the house. You know, a traffic light, car rims with tires, old periodicals.
The option to “supersize” it during purchase wasn’t an option; otherwise, I would have. Perhaps a walk up loft, a balcony, and air conditioning too. Incredibly, I have so many books and magazines piled on the left side of it, the poor thing leans likes it’s going to tip over! Like that famous tower in Pisa. So what prevents me from scrubbing it?
Like everything else in life, the time that continually slips away every weekend when you get too tired to do anything else. That includes going out for ice cream, washing the car, or inviting friends (not fiends) over to hang out and barbecue. You’re pooped.
By 9:00 p.m. on a Sunday evening, I am ready to get tucked into bed. Sorting a shed at twilight isn’t to be the day’s highlight. At least for me. But I promise, by the end of August it’s going to happen. If not, soon it’s going to be sitting on its side, like a shipwreck.
As summer scurries on, it reveals how things can get capsized. Older people I know are beginning to descend a slow slope as in remembering things or forgetting to do tasks or turn things off. It disappoints me and others as their health declines. I see more canes and walkers in the hands of people who never had them.
At the other end of the spectrum, my younger “day trippers” are sliding out of their impish grins and heading toward adult grimaces. It was only a few years ago I would look in the rear view mirror and see the girls giggle and babble about poke-e-man. Now, they discuss the man of their dreams, as in marriage.
The boys once talked about music as a be all, end all in their lives. Now it’s the college or job they so desperately want to play chords with. I am “reeling in the years” with them, but refusing to play the role of a chaperone who is labeled “Mr. Dinosaur.” So far, so good.
Thus, the summer sun not only ripens the tomatoes in your garden but our local youth and their outlooks!
I really balked about discussing how summer is half empty. Really then, it’s still half full! Thus, I suggest grasping it firmly with a huge bear hug and not letting go. Summer grants us a reprieve from the harshness of winter.
And slipping on ice.
Summer Isn’t the Only Thing Slipping Away
In case you haven’t noticed, and I am sure you have, summer is half over. More depressing, there are several trees that are shedding some yellow, crisp leaves. Hey, Mr. Tree over there, it’s not even October yet! So don’t deflate our hot air balloons just yet, OK?
On a brighter note, congratulate my father on celebrating his 82nd birthday on July 24th. He’s still driving, eating, and most importantly — breathing. Still resides in the home he built for us in 1970. More worn — call it patina — it’s still a great place, and his palace. He loves being there with his prize Turkish Van cat, aka the “white dynamo.” Real name – Biddle.
I’m happy I can visit both of them at his own residence and not a nursing home. Note to senior centers and elderly homes — he won’t consider going to your joint unless you allow the cat to go with him. A “package deal.” The couch is still accommodating and comfy, as it should be after so many years of “breaking it in.” It’s a home worth calling home.
Speaking of couches and chairs, as a retired interior decorator, he placed plenty of them in other people’s homes. Sometimes I went to help move the furniture, and let me tell you, you didn’t want anything to slip out of your hands!
It was a tight squeeze in those older homes! Bruised knuckles and bumped behinds proved it!
With July almost behind us, August marks a bull’s-eye for me, as it’s time to accomplish everything for summer you didn’t get done by the end of June and a bit beyond. My shed needs a massive overhaul and cleanup. I cannot let this task slip my mind.
Ah yes, the shed. My version of your basement or attic. A “catch-all” where things tend to slip away. Forever. Sure, the mower, the rake and shovel, and tools go in there. And so does everything else I have no room for in the house. You know, a traffic light, car rims with tires, old periodicals.
The option to “supersize” it during purchase wasn’t an option; otherwise, I would have. Perhaps a walk up loft, a balcony, and air conditioning too. Incredibly, I have so many books and magazines piled on the left side of it, the poor thing leans likes it’s going to tip over! Like that famous tower in Pisa. So what prevents me from scrubbing it?
Like everything else in life, the time that continually slips away every weekend when you get too tired to do anything else. That includes going out for ice cream, washing the car, or inviting friends (not fiends) over to hang out and barbecue. You’re pooped.
By 9:00 p.m. on a Sunday evening, I am ready to get tucked into bed. Sorting a shed at twilight isn’t to be the day’s highlight. At least for me. But I promise, by the end of August it’s going to happen. If not, soon it’s going to be sitting on its side, like a shipwreck.
As summer scurries on, it reveals how things can get capsized. Older people I know are beginning to descend a slow slope as in remembering things or forgetting to do tasks or turn things off. It disappoints me and others as their health declines. I see more canes and walkers in the hands of people who never had them.
At the other end of the spectrum, my younger “day trippers” are sliding out of their impish grins and heading toward adult grimaces. It was only a few years ago I would look in the rear view mirror and see the girls giggle and babble about poke-e-man. Now, they discuss the man of their dreams, as in marriage.
The boys once talked about music as a be all, end all in their lives. Now it’s the college or job they so desperately want to play chords with. I am “reeling in the years” with them, but refusing to play the role of a chaperone who is labeled “Mr. Dinosaur.” So far, so good.
Thus, the summer sun not only ripens the tomatoes in your garden but our local youth and their outlooks!
I really balked about discussing how summer is half empty. Really then, it’s still half full! Thus, I suggest grasping it firmly with a huge bear hug and not letting go. Summer grants us a reprieve from the harshness of winter.
And slipping on ice.
Gerry Ayers
AUTHOR
PROFILE